How prejudiced are Americans against Muslims?

Colin Powell speaks in favor of Obama

It makes me proud to be an American when I read articles like this. Of course, I am biased in favor of Obama to begin with, so it makes me excited to think that someone with the credentials and the Republican party affiliation such as Powell feels led to endorse him. Some conservatives would argue that this is a matter of supporting him because he is of the same racial background, but Powell argues against that in this article.

There are many things that make me proud in reading this article: the first is that Powell is calling out the McCain campaign on using polarizing rhetoric in order to make Obama look like a risky candidate (and having Palin on board as VP isn't risky???) This idea was highlighted in my favorite column in the Kent Stater, written by a political science senior who often articulates his thoughts about political issues. A recent column described the inflammatory reaction against Obama in McCain rally's - an old man carrying a stuffed monkey labeled "Obama" and people calling Obama a "terrorist" and "unpatriotic." I agree that this rhetoric has gone too far, and although the negative campaigning is coming strong from both directions, you don't see people making these kind of sweeping generalizations about McCain (Palin, maybe...).

But the thing that made me BY FAR the most proud in this article is Powell's statement that Obama has "always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is [a Muslim]? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?" I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read that statement. Ever since reading "Three Cups of Tea," a non-fiction book set in Islamic Pakistan and Afghanistan, I have come to realize more and more how prejudice against Islamic people - and the Islamic religion - is becoming (or already is) acceptable and mainstreamed in American culture. Muslims are being ostracized in the way that the Japanese were in WW2. Have we learned nothing from our past?? Instead of addressing this prejudice, people like Obama and McCain avoid the issue for fear that they will be called "unpatriotic" themselves. But thankfully Powell shows us that SOMEONE is willing to take a stand and say what needs to be said. Now, if only people would be willing to listen....